No comments about The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'an - Text and Explanatory Translation By Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall.

No comments about The Sectarian Divide.(Sunni and Shiite Muslims): An article from: APS Diplomat Redrawing the Islamic Map.

No comments about Life after Death (Windows onto the Faith series).

No comments about Making sense of the Shia-Sunni divide.(The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future)(Book review): An article from: National Catholic Reporter.

5 comments about Islam: A Very Short Introduction.

1. As usual this Very Short Introduction is right on target, that is, a quick and lucid overview of a major world religion. Yet, the post-September 11th times have sadly eclipsed the author's judgment about the future pietist or quietist trend in Islam. Perhaps in the long view his opinions will be justified at a future date, but for now they just seem to be prematurely dated. Despite that apparently negative comment from this reviewer, there is no better place to start learning about Islam than with Ruthven's book.



2. The author begins by complaining that such a short introduction can't adequately present Islam. Fair enough, but Ruthven then proceeds to waste much time critiquing certain points of view rather than just giving an exposition. Even worse, he often makes offhand allusions to people and historical events and takes an abstract, high-handed tone, so that I feel I would have to already be acquainted with Islam and the history of the Arab world in order to understand what he's talking about. Jeez, this was supposed to be an intro, not a refresher!



3. PLEASE if your interested in learning about ISLAM the religion then looking it up on the web is much more usefull and truthfull than this garbage. you will not be introduced to anything in this short introduction, except the same ani-islamic propaganda that is abundant every were around you.



4. As I purchased this book b/c I didn't know much about Islam, and wanted a starting point, I found it be very useful to me. I cannot evaluate the accuracy of all the information, as some other reviewers have done. I felt it was a great survey of many subtopics.
   
   Perhaps what disturbed some readers was that the book does not touch only on the "religious" aspects of Islam. However, based on another book I had read, Islam the religion is irreversibly entangled with Islamic politics and society. Indeed, the author of Islam: AVSI states as much with the first three headings in Chapter 1: Islam as Identity, Islam as Political Ideology, and Islam as Faith. This is similar to Jews, who usually identify as Jewish regardless of whether they practice the faith.
   
   I was very pleased with my purchase of this VSI, and highly recommend it. I now go on to further my learning with a trip through a translation of the Quran.



5. I read "Islam: A Very Short Introduction" for a class I am taking on Islam in Africa. I was really hoping to gain more knowledge on the religion that over 1.6 billion people practice. Also, I wanted to learn about the differences between "true" Islam, and the Islam of the fanatical fundamentalists such as Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.
   Sadly, this book is not the best place to go for that kind of information. It is a short read, to be sure. But the book packs way too much information into a small volume. In some chapters, it is virtually impossible to discern the information given.
   However, there is some good information available here. The chapter on the history of the rise of Mohammad the Prophet, and the beginnings of Islam, is very insightful. Also, the appendix gives great insight into the five pillars of Islam.
   Overall, "Islam: A Very Short Introduction," is a disappointing overview of Islam. If you're the kind of reader who can amass a vast amount of knowledge in a shor amount of time, then this is the place to begin. But if you're like me, and it takes a while for it to sink in, then other books might be better places to learn from.
   Book Grade: C+

No comments about Constructive Critics, Hadith Literature, and the Articulation of Sunni Islam: The Legacy of the Generation of Ibn Sad, Ibn Man, and Ibn Hanbal (Islamic History and Civilization).

No comments about Tafsir Al-Jalalayn (Great Commentaries of the Holy Qur'an).

1 comments about Shiah Islam in Sunni traditions: A translation of Peshawar nights.

1. "Recently the non-Muslim world has forcibly learned that Islam is divided into two sects, Shia and Sunni, but there is so little material in languages other than Arabic and Persian on the Shia side of the issue that real understanding is all but impossible. This is the consequence of the historical accident that Western contact with Islam was almost entirely with Sunni communities, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ottoman Turkey, most of Muslim India, etc. The present work corrects this imbalance in a most extraordinary way, for the case for Shi'ite Islam is argued and supported virtually entirely from orthodox Sunni sources. The political, juridical, and spiritual legitimacy of the Shi'ite position has been argued and documented in the English language, and from sources that the West has largely overlooked.
   
   In fact, it is shown here that the most authoritative source for interpreting of the message of the Prophet Muhammad was his cousin and son-in-law, Ali Ibn Abi Talib, and the eleven other designated successors after him, who constitute the Imams of the Ithna Asheri (Twelve Imam) Shias. At various times in history this fact has been more or less recognized by the Muslim world. As recently as 1959, for example, Sheikh Mahmud Shaltut, late Rector of Al-Azhar University in Cairo and Grand Mufti of the Sunni Sect, decreed that in addition to the four Sunni schools of Muslim canon law, Hanafite, Hanbalite, Malakite, and Shafi'ite, the Ja'farite or Shia school of law was equally acceptable to Muslims. A brief account of how this came about at the instigation of Imam Mohamad Chirri, Director of the Islamic Center of North American in Detroit, Michigan, may be found in Chirri's book "The Shiites Under Attack," published by the Center.
   * * *
   
   The present work is based on the transcript of a dialogue between several Sunni divines and a 31 year-old Shi'ite scholar, `Abdel-Fani "Sultanu'l-Wa'izin" al-Musawi, of Shiraz, Iran, held over a period of ten nights in Peshawar, India, beginning on 27 January 1927. The dialogues were a model of mutual respect, and in spite of the seriousness of the subject and the presence of an audience of some 200, there was no breach of decorum. The author refers to himself throughout the book as "Da'i," that is, one who prays for or invokes a blessing upon someone, translated here as "Well-Wisher." His success is indicated by the fact that at the end of the dialogue one of his Sunni opponents and five other dignitaries in the audience publicly acknowledged their conversion to the Shia sect.
   
   A condition of the dialogue was that only sources acceptable to both sects would be cited. The dialogue was held in Farsi, commonly understood in the city of Peshawar. The transcript, made by four reporters and published in the newspapers daily, was published in book form in Teheran and soon became a classic authority in the East."
   (...)
   
   
   The general Sunni (i.e. Wahabi) reactions to the content of the book is to blankly deny its aunthenticity. As usual as it is with most things Wahabi (and our quarrel is not in any way with any of the four Sunni medhhebs, but rather with the evil-doers of the Muawiyan conviction, from the very midst of whom al-Qaeda has sprung) the logic makes little sense: "Because the session never happened, I don't need to respond to the material that it presents in defence of the Shia. But I am entitled to continue ranting and instigating, because, after all, as we all know, the Shia are since long declared the worst type of infidels and he who kills two of them is guaranteed a place in Paradise."
   
   (...)
   
   Also check the equally feared and hated books of Tijani Samawi. His works are highly serious and have to be studied carefully, not because of their special scholarlihood, but because of his special insights into the reported accurances.

No comments about The Glory of the Shia World.

No comments about Facing One Qiblah Legal & Doctrinal Aspects of Sunni and Shiah Muslims.